Peek Behind the Scenes of Research
Hear from grants managers, instrument builders, microscope operators and more
As the lab manager for School of Medicine fungal researcher Asiya Gusa, Shaltz keeps the incubators, centrifuges, biosafety cabinets and other equipment up to date and certified. She also negotiates with vendors and keeps lab materials stocked.
A self-proclaimed stickler, Shaltz takes lab safety very seriously. “I’m very proud of two perfect lab safety audits over the last 2 years,” she says. In a more office-like corner of the lab – framed by her drawings that have won awards at NC State Fairs – Shaltz works on safety tips she shares each week in the department newsletter.
“I’m the ghostwriter for Lookout Larry the Safety LABrador,” she reveals with a laugh.
In addition to keeping other people’s research humming along, Shaltz maintains the fungal biobank being built by the Gusa lab and colleagues investigating the mold-inducing aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Even with dedicated support, coaxing a fungal strain to grow for an experiment can take over a month. “It’s a very time-consuming process and there’s so much troubleshooting,” says Shaltz.
Justin Fox and Scott Howell in the ‘Kitchen’
“This was a notebook sketch when it showed up,” says Justin Fox, research & design engineer at the physics instrument shop.
He’s standing over a precisely machined white trough made of Teflon, which will be used as a nonreactive testbed for experiments by Duke researchers looking at how UV light breaks down plastics in water.
The workshop is strewn with loads of equipment and a variety of projects in various stages of development. Though based in the physics department of the Trinity School of Arts & Sciences, anyone on campus is welcome to use the machine shop’s services, says senior instrument maker Scott Howell.
“Machine shops are like kitchens,” says Howell. “You go to a fine dining restaurant: They’ve got a kitchen. You go to a Waffle House: They’ve got a kitchen. Some of the equipment is the same but what they do is completely different. Machine shops are like that, too.”
Walking between lathes and saws, Howell explains how the on-campus machine shop provides an experience that is more inviting to researchers, integrating them into to the build process throughout in a way that a commercial shop would usually prefer to avoid.
Other benefits include being more flexible with a rough starting point and lower costs to make those research funds stretch further. “Whatever needs doing, we do,” says Howell.
Ginger Sigmon the Influencer
“It takes a village to support researchers,” says Ginger Sigmon, director of research development and administration at the Nicholas School of the Environment.
And she should know. With a nuclear materials Ph.D. under her belt, Sigmon helped manage a large sustainable energy research center at Notre Dame before coming to Duke.
“How research works at a large scale, helping influence where things are going – I just fell in love with that,” says Sigmon.
Nowadays, Sigmon helps Duke faculty develop environmental research ideas and prepare for applying to grants. She searches for and tracks potential grant targets, reviews applications and – once grants are secured – helps make sure the project is compliant with funding regulations for the award.
Sigmon ticks off a few recent projects she’s been supporting: marine carbon dioxide removal research, the Critical Minerals Hub, Duke RESTORE and a partnership with African Parks, to name a few.
There are a lot of components to keeping research moving besides the experimentation and scholarship itself.
“My philosophy has always been: I want my researchers to be doing what they do best, which is researching and teaching. But so much gets pushed down to them, so if I can take some of that off of them, that’s what I want to do,” says Sigmon.
Jorge Fidhel Gonzalez with a Green Thumb
“You bring the plants; we keep them alive for you.”
That’s the promise of Jorge Fidhel Gonzalez, supervisor at the Duke Greenhouse, part of the Trinity College of Arts & Sciences.
Weaving through rows of breeding crosses of striking magenta Clarkia flowers, Fidhel Gonzalez explains how the greenhouse team works closely with Duke labs and with external clients to maintain plants for ongoing research.
“Everybody cares about each plant. Everybody’s working hard,” says Fidhel Gonzalez.
Over here, leafy plants are being grown to feed butterflies for other experiments. Over there, bees used to buzz around plants as part of another experiment.
“I feel a part of doing something for science,” says Fidhel Gonzalez. “It’s great motivation.”
Scientists from across Duke campus are invited to take advantage of the research support of the greenhouse – but everyone is invited to visit.
The Teaching Collection section of the greenhouse is open to the public; guided tours are also available. From cacti and succulents to orchids and carnivorous plants, there are hundreds of specimens to inspect up close.
“It’s a big, beautiful community,” says Fidhel Gonzalez of the greenhouse staff, researchers and visitors. “I think this is the greatest part of Duke.”
Margo Ginsberg Builds a Community
“We have researchers who look at quantum computing from all different angles,” says Margo Ginsberg, senior program coordinator at the Duke Quantum Center, part of the Pratt School of Engineering.
She looks at her calendar and walks through a month of events. There’s something exciting in store every week: Ginsberg is organizing visits from international delegations, bootcamps for students, a research collaborator workshop and more.
In contrast to the “spooky action at a distance” of quantum entanglement, Ginsberg highlights the importance of bringing researchers together.
“It's like building a second family,” she says. Getting people in the room together sparks new ideas and spotlights key takeaways. A main goal for Ginsberg is helping disseminate the research to the wider community, which invites more people into the family.
Making sure to provide opportunities for young students and researchers helps build the family as well.
“I make it possible for young budding engineers and physicists who want to learn more about quantum computing to come to Duke for a week and be fully funded to do that,” says Ginsberg.
Lisa Cameron Shines the Light
Nestled in a few different buildings across campus, the Light Microscopy Core Facility has top-of-the-line instrumentation available for use by Duke researchers.
“Visualizing what changes might happen is important,” says Lisa Cameron, director of the Light Microscopy Core Facility. Her four-person team – all with Ph.D.s – help researchers take images of experiments, often tracking changes in proteins and other cellular machinery with fluorescent labels, chemical tags that glow when the right wavelength of light hits them.
For example, researchers study cell division and its dysregulation from cancer. “What we’re doing is helping people be able to visualize and follow those steps,” says Cameron. “And if you can understand a small part of it, you can hopefully understand what might go wrong, and that may be linked to some type of cancer.”
Human health research isn’t the only thing the core facility supports. Recently, an engineer brought tiny samples of crystals that they had grown but never visualized before. A polarized light microscope allowed them to see the birefringence – a distinct double bouncing of light through the crystals. “They were blown away by it,” says Cameron.
Core facilities like this one came about because you just can’t do all the various complex techniques of science in one lab anymore, says Cameron. Pooling resources together for instrumentation is a cost-effective way to move research along efficiently.
A side effect is that it brings more people in the door and breeds collaboration.
“Anybody on campus can come and ask for help from us,” says Cameron. “The earlier the better.”
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